The Sarissas
by EKHornbeck
Summary: It's been ten months after the Battle of New York, and the city hasn't recovered. Among its tent settlements, an orphaned teen mutant named Assange is approached by a group of fellow kids with a proposition: take down S.H.I.E.L.D. and avenge both of their families. Less Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. and more whole Marvel Cinematic Universe, but I had to pick a category. K to T.
1. Kid Stuff

The Sarissas

Chapter One: Kid Stuff

_"Those who can make you believe absurdities can make you commit atrocities."_

_-Voltaire_

If someone walked up to you and said that they could save your life, and all they needed to do was watch you every minute of every day, how would you react? Would you let them, because your life was more important than your freedom? Would you ask them why they needed to watch you every minute of every day? Or how they would do that? Now imagine the same person walked up to you and said that they were going to watch you every minute of every day, but it would save your life, and oh, sorry, you have no choice in the matter. That's S.H.I.E.L.D. in a nutshell. No choice, no freedom, and the fairly vague promise of saving your life.

To be fair, it wasn't exactly _1984_. You could go about your daily life without a dozen agents watching your every move from a van, and from what I've heard, the corporate environment on the Helicarrier is actually very nice. But still, they could watch you. They could kidnap you. And they could deprive you of every single constitutional right imaginable. And that was enough for most people to get mad about it, if only privately. But I'm no Rising Tide hacktivist or terrorist sleeper agent. No, when I got into the revolutionary business, I was a thirteen-year-old mutant charity PI living in a metal shack in a New York City homeless district.

Rogerstown wasn't the only tent city in Manhattan. All five boroughs combined, there were fourteen of its kind, sprawls of makeshift shacks and camping tents pitched by people with no place to go. It was ten months after the Battle of New York, and relief was, to say the least, slow. And by that I mean it cost sixteen times FEMA's annual budget, and that was just the damages. Everyone was either living off odd jobs, Red Cross assistance, or more often, both. I was one of those people, but instead of walking the dog or delivering newspapers, I caught pickpockets and sent messages to rival gangs. My real name is not something I'm putting out into the world, so you can call me Assange. I am a mutant.

In terms of powers, I'm not exactly a god. Whenever I'm around technology, anything from 1920s telephones to a military jet, I can control it to any extent. Hack them, destroy them, or use them. It's a pretty useful skill, but it also has some serious limits, especially since most people in the tent cities don't have electricity. I keep an iPad on hand just in case, and I was lazily thumbing through TV Tropes when I got the knock on my door. Well, not a door. A metal sheet in front of my (extremely) humble abode.

I stood up, switched the iPad off (whether or not I did it with my mind is yours to decide), and walked the several feet between my mattress and the door. I slid the sheet aside just the tiniest bit, and looked outside. There were the usual bright orange and green tents of Rogerstown, and people walking about, very shabbily dressed. But the four kids standing at my door were dressed differently. One was a tall guy, maybe sixteen, in black jeans and a white t-shirt. He had blonde hair, like the little girl standing next to him, clad in a yellow skirt/shirt combo with a smiling sun. She couldn't have been more than eight. Next to those two were an auburn-haired duo. A girl, around my age if a bit older, clad in cyan sweatpants and a red shirt with a stylized rainbow on it. And another boy of about eleven, blue shirt and blue jeans. They all had bulky-looking backpacks on.

"State your business," I said, trying to sound a lot older than I actually was. I gave it up after the first syllable of "business", since it made my throat hurt. The sun girl giggled, until the blue kid looked at her.

"No, really. This isn't the Red Cross; I don't give stuff away for free. Even if I had stuff worth giving away, I wouldn't give it away. So state your business."

The rainbow girl spoke up.

"We heard your parents got screwed over by S.H.I.E.L.D. We can relate."

I opened the door a bit wider, but tried to keep my face shadowed.

"What," I said through gritted teeth (my parents were not a friendly topic of discussion), "do you know about my parents?"

"We were asking around-what was that cluster of tents called? The one with the people offering us cocaine or a good time?"

"Caliph," the older guy answered. "They said your parents got kidnapped by the men in dark suits. Like my sister said, we can relate."

"And you want me to do-what, exactly?"

This time Blue Shirt spoke up.

"Help us get revenge."

"On S.H.I.E.L.D.? Have you lost it?"

"We've lost enough already," said white shirt. "Jury's still out on our sanity."

I opened the door all the way. "Well," I said, sweeping my arm to the side. "Take a seat. Not exactly Club Med, though."

Chez Assange was maybe fifteen square feet of space. A mattress to one side that I slept on and used as a couch. An oil drum with a few stools that was my dining nook. A cooler with assorted MREs, water bottles, and energy drinks. And a set of three drawers that contained all my worldly goods. I pulled a mostly full bottle of Gatorade out of the cooler and a plastic cup out of the drawer. "You kids want anything?" They all nodded. I sighed and pulled out four more cups, filling them halfway with what looked like liquefied neon, handing one to each kid, who sipped it while I thumbed through my iPad. After a few minutes, White Shirt broke the silence.

"So... what is it you're doing?"

"Looking into some things, Alex."

The kid stepped back a few feet. "How do you know my name?"

"The guys in Caliph didn't tell you I could manipulate technology? You aren't the only orphaned mutant in NYC. Now, care to explain what you're doing so far from Richmond?"

"We… ah…"

Finally, Sun Girl spoke up.

"We already told you! The shield men took our parents, and we've been running from them!"

"Thank you, Katie. Now, you said you wanted to take down S.H.I.E.L.D.?"

Rainbow answered this time. "Just hit them hard enough for them never to mess with our family again."

I gave Julie a two-fingered salute, and went back to my reading. "You have my blessing, but you're not exactly Omega-Level, and neither am I. You go off, get yourselves killed or worse, but don't drag me into this."

"The 'guys in Caliph' said your parents got yanked from Hell's Kitchen six months ago. Don't you want to avenge them?"

"Ironic word choice. Look, do you have ANYTHING to go on? Because the S.H.I.E.L.D. intranet isn't exactly tablet-friendly, and I'm not aboard the Helicarrier or anything."

Jack spoke up.

"Alex… you said they were moving people out to Chicago tomorrow?"

"Across the George Washington Bridge out of Yonkers. Yes, I did. Sound like a good opportunity, Assange?"

I smiled just the tiniest bit. "It sounds like a very opportune opportunity. You got a place to stay?"

They all shook their heads at the same time. Once again, I sighed.

"You'll sleep on the floor. But you can sleep here. When does the Yonkers convoy leave?"

"10:30."

"Good. We can sleep in. But just one more thing. This isn't kid stuff. You go down, you go down, and don't expect my help. And even if this does succeed, this is a door we can't close. Understood? There's no walking away unscathed. So are we all in?"

They all nodded. "Oh," I said, before they started unpacking. "About my payment…" Katie gave me the harshest luck an eight-year-old could muster, and I didn't finish my sentence.


	2. Hudson

Chapter Two: Hudson

"_The securest place is a prison cell, but there is no liberty"_

_ -Benjamin Franklin_

8:27 in the morning, by my watch, 8:29 by Jack's. I couldn't legally drive, but interestingly enough, I DID steal the car Alex driving. Funny how much of a hypocrite I can be sometimes. We were headed along the Henry Hudson Parkway from a side street by Rogerstown to Yonkers. Everyone could barely hold down breakfast. The plan was simple-I had checked with a few of my friends in Rogerstown, and apparently the convoy held four people, either suspected mutants or Rising Tide people. Two vans, some low-level agents. Simple stuff, really. They were headed from Yonkers to Chicago, so if we failed to break this up, we would either be caught or have wasted our time.

Alex was trying to blow off steam by intermittently encasing a small object in the color in a milky, transparent bubble, where it would float for a few moments before the bubble vanished, dropping the object to the ground. I was following us with Google Maps. Katie and Julie were reading Mark Twain together, trying to forget that we were about to go toe-to-toe with the people who kidnapped their parents. Jack was just lazily staring out the window. Then, he saw them. He jolted up, and practically screamed in my ear.

"Van! Next lane over! S.H.I.E.L.D. logo!"

That woke all of us up. Katie leaped out of her seatbelt and jumped into the trunk. She looked out for a second, and then shouted back. "He's right!" Alex floored it, knuckles making dents in the steering wheel. We heard a muffled, crackling voice from behind us.

"Stop your vehicle! I repeat, stop your vehicle! You are believed to be harboring fugitives and mutants, in direct violation of the Trask Act of 2013!"

I rolled down my window and gave the car the finger. They responded by firing a warning shot at our bumper. It connected, and the car jolted for a second, and everyone shrieked. A second one took out one of our tires, and we didn't exactly have time for a spare. We kept bumping along, drawing the attention of quite a few motorists. Then both our back tires were out, and we skidded to an unwanted halt. Alex swore and hit the steering wheel. The S.H.I.E.L.D. van pulled to a stop behind us, and several people got out. The first one walked beside my window, and flipped her badge at us.

She was Asian, probably mid-thirties, but she looked younger. She was clad in a Kevlar vest with the S.H.I.E.L.D. logo on the shoulders and gray pants, and held what looked like a handgun with part of the base glowing blue. Her badge read Melinda May.

"Agent May, S.H.I.E.L.D. Do you have any idea how fast you were driving? Or that you're harboring four fugitive mutants wanted on charges of fleeing custody and assault of a government agent?"

I was scared out of my damn mind, but I was trying my very best not to let that show.

"Ma'am, I take offense at the slur. We prefer metahuman."

She looked a bit taken aback at the fact that a mutant was helping fellow mutants. She raised her gun from her hip ever-so-slightly, but that, I wasn't afraid of.

"Oh, really, I dare you. Pull the trigger. Electronic firing pin, it won't work."

She tried to fire a bullet at one of our tires, but sure enough, all she got was a faint clicking sound.

"One warning, kid. You and all your friends get out of the car and nobody has to get hurt. You'll be treated decently, like their parents."

That was enough for Alex. May's gun flew out of her hand and pistol-whipped another agent, who shouted and grabbed the side of his head. The last one drew on Katie, and this one didn't look electronic. So I did the only thing that I could do. All three agents suddenly screamed in pain and grasped their left ear, which was suddenly gushing blood and the occasional sliver of metal. We practically flew out of the car, and into the S.H.I.E.L.D. van, which was roomier and more crammed with tech than most internet cafes. Alex once again grabbed the steering wheel, and we were out of there.

The Yonkers escape was pretty much out of the question at this point, so we turned around, hoping we could lose any additional pursuit in the city proper. Which, as it turned out, were legion. We heard an additional van and the steady _vitvitvitvit_ of a helicopter behind us. I was too far away to make them crash or pull to a halt, but there _was _a crate of flashbang grenades, which were pretty easy to use, and got the van off our tail. By this point, we had driven the van into Riverbank State Park. Into a grove of trees, in fact. Then, Julie had an idea. Of sorts.

"Hand me a flashbang."

Her siblings looked at her with a smile. I just watched as Jack handed her one of the black canisters. Then, she got out of the van, into the open, and-flew. She rocketed into the air, leaving a faint trail of color behind her, like the kind of thing you'd see in waterfall mist. Then, she flew up alongside the helicopter, slowed down, and tossed a flashbang at it, then flew back down to us. Sure enough, half a second later, it exploded, blinding the pilot. It went spinning for a few minutes, and just managed to avoid hitting the pedestrians before coming to a halt on the Hudson River Greenway. I gaped, but the rest of her siblings just piled back into the car. Then, we heard more gunshots. We all got in, and Alex managed to get us out of the trees, back onto the road. As it turned out, they had blocked it off.

We spun around, only to find out that we were surrounded on all sides. Another chopper was overhead. Alex cursed again, and then got a manic look in his eyes. "Everyone open your doors, just a bit!" We did so. Then he drove past one of the roadblocks, while our tires and doors took most of the bullets. And then he drove us into the Hudson. Before we hit the water, I thought, _Oh, THAT'S why the doors are open._

We survived. I mean, we staggered, five pounds heavier from water, onto the New Jersey side of the Hudson River, by some Little League fields. But we didn't drown, since the adrenaline turning us into Blue Mountain State characters got us across. But we were wanted, cashless, and desperately in need of some new clothes. Thankfully, nobody was playing that day, but someone had parked their minivan. So, we committed our second count of grand theft auto that day, and we were off. Fortunately, I knew someone who owed me a small favor. So, I punched in the establishment on the GPS, and after a quick looting of an ATM, we were off to Baltimore. "So," Alex asked me once we were on the road. "Who's this friend of yours?"

"This, ah… let's just say we won't be bringing Katie inside."

Alex looked at the GPS. "No, she's not. You're not seriously weighing our freedom on…"

"Yup. We're going to Baltimore to meet with a mutant stripper."

There was a voice from the back of the car. Katie's.

"What's a stripper?"


	3. Arsenic and Old Lace

Chapter Three: Arsenic and Old Lace

"_When a man is denied the right to live the life he believes in, he has no choice but to become an outlaw."_

_-__Nelson Mandela_

It took almost five hours to get from NYC to Baltimore. That, and some hefty bribery via stolen ATM cash. I really didn't care at this point. By the time we reached the city, everyone but Alex and I were asleep. I was reading up on S.H.I.E.L.D.'s response. Apparently several agents, including a senior officer, were in the hospital for "injuries caused by insurgents against the United States government, at least two of which have confirmed metahuman abilities". Not untrue, but now we were all wanted both by S.H.I.E.L.D. and the Amber Alert system. Joy.

We were in a particularly run-down part of the city, with more than one strip club, but I knew the right one. Nobody bothered to ask how. It was called Shaggy's, and the bouncer wasn't exactly thrilled to see us.

"You can't go in there. Triple-x stuff."

I stepped up. "We want to talk to Heidi. Tell her Assange wants to see her."

"And explain why I should-"

And then his walkie-talkie flew up into the air, Alex's doing. He turned pale as milk.

"I-I-I'll see what I can do. Be around back, blue door. But it's her time slot, so don't keep her too long."

Sure enough, outside the blue door marked BACK ENTRANCE was a young woman. She had black lipstick, and black hair partially dyed purple. She was also wearing a leather bikini and fishnet stockings. And she looked shockingly happy to see me.

"Julian! Good to see ya!"

I shoved off the hug. "Julian isn't my real name," I quickly said to the Powers, but then she hugged me anyway. "So," she said. "What brings you to Baltimore?"

"Heard a rumor that Johnson and Bowen are operating a safehouse in La-La Land. Can you confirm that?"

"Can't, sorry. But I wouldn't put it past them. They've always been the needs-of-the-many type folks. Me, I'd go for it if you can make the trip. You looking to set up shop on a new coast? Or…?" She pointed to the Powers.

"Them, yeah. Shield Orphans."

"Ahem," said Jack. "Could you PLEASE introduce us? And not talk like we're not in the… immediate vicinity?"

I looked at them awkwardly. "Sorry. Kids, this is Heidi Franklin. She's a stripper, yes, prefer if you didn't judge. She's a mutant, like me. I met her after an incident with a pharmaceuticals company. She has some telepathic abilities, conjuring stuff, tapping into people's pleasure centers. Don't laugh." They all giggled anyway.

"Anyway," she said. "Anything else you need, or did you just want to stop by and see an old fr-"and that's when I heard three _bleep_s.

"DOWN!"

Too late. The entire alley was flooded with sickly-sweet smoke, like a Halloween fog machine. It was like someone had chopped the world's largest onion. We were all half-blind, tear-eyed, and disoriented, staggering around. Half a dozen people dressed like May surrounded us, and aimed guns at our heads. No electronic firing pins to be found here or earpieces.

"This is S.H.I.E.L.D.! Get on your knees; don't make me say it twice!"

We did, and felt guns pressed to the back of our heads.

"You're under arrest for assault, resisting arrest, and undocumented metahuman abilities."

"What?" Julie spat out. "So living is a crime now?"

"No, but we have databases for this sort of thing. Your parents didn't want you to be on it, and that's why they're in…"

"Where? WHERE ARE MY PARENTS?"

"I can't tell you th-YAAAAGH!"

I heard a sickening _thwack_, a few hisses, and a lot of screaming. The guns went away, and when we turned around, the agents were all unconscious. Two had shoulder wounds gushing blood. Standing above them were two girls. One was tall, older than me, dressed like your stereotypical goth, with spiky black hair and matching lipstick. She was holding a golden staff as tall as she was. Standing next to her was a girl about a year younger, chunky, with purple hair and glasses. And between them was a Deinonychus.

All of us staggered back, staring at the dinosaur behind them. The purple-haired girl motioned with her hand. "Old Lace, sit." The raptor sat. Then I heard a young woman's voice from the roof of the club.

"Holy crap… is that you, Assange?"

I looked up. Standing on the roof, barely visible with all the smoke, were two people. One was a blonde woman, in her twenties, dressed in a skintight white jumpsuit with plenty of missing fabric. The other was a much taller African-American man, about her age, clad in a huge black cloak. I'm talking ink-black, I-will-consume-your-soul black, not some magician's cape.

"Tandy! Tyrone! Good to see you!" I called back. They jumped down, joining the two girls. All four looked at us oddly.

"So…" the goth said asked. "Who are you?"

"I," I responded, "Am Assange. My real name is irrelevant. I am a somewhat powerful mutant, with technological control capabilities. My accomplices here are-" I pointed to each of them in turn. "Alex Power, with gravity control abilities. Julie Power, who can fly at exponential speeds. Jack Power, who can… control his destiny?"

Jack looked insulted. "My _density_. Turn into clouds, stuff like that."

"Thank you. And Katie Power, who can emit a beam of pure energy from her torso."

Katie seemed proud of that fact. "Now," I said. "Your names?"

The goth girl stepped forward. "My name is Nico Minoru." Purple Hair joined her. "Gertrude Yorkes. And my little pet here is-"

"Old Lace. I caught that. Oh, sorry, T&T. Forgot to mention you. Kids, this is Tandy Bowen and Tyrone Johnson, aka Cloak and Dagger. We'll talk about them later, since I don't want to spend all day swapping superpower stories. S.H.I.E.L.D. probably has people on every street. We need to get out of here."

"Right," Cloak says, flipping his arm to one side. "Get in."

"Have you lost it, Ty? I am NOT going in there again."

"You got a better idea?"

I sighed. "Kids, get inside the man's cloak."

They looked reluctant, and then Jack jumped at the cloak. He instantly vanished into it. Katie shrieked, while Julie and Jack just rolled their eyes. They all held hands and jumped in. I strolled in afterwards. It felt a bit like when you walk out of a pool and then go inside, in that it was freezing and uncomfortable. Then, I was standing on a dead ringer for the Moon. The sky was black; the ground was chalky and gray. All four Powers were staring. Maybe twenty yards away was a cluster of suitcases and sleeping bags. We weren't alone.

There were three kids playing some sort of card game. One was a girl no older than thirteen wearing a cute pink hat. Another was a guy, seventeen at the most. He looked (and dressed) like every California skater/surfer type, with the exception that he was wearing metal goggles and looked like he had huge metal gloves on. And there was finally a blonde girl, dressed in a jean jacket and matching pants. They couldn't have looked more out of place (mostly). The girl in the pink hat was reading off of some black cards.

"-my last relationship? Yeast."

The other two fell to the ground, laughing. The girl looked a bit confused, then turned around and saw us. She stood up. "Who are you?"

The other two kids turned around and stood up, simultaneously shocked and curious. The boy raised his fists at us.

"Relax, Chase. Friendlies." Nico's voice. She, Gertrude, and Old Lace had walked in behind us. The Powers were still staring. "First time in the Darkforce dimension?"

Alex nodded. "So… that's what this is called."

The three kids relaxed. Gertrude pointed at the pink hat girl, Chase, and the girl in the jean jacket in turn. "Meet Molly, Chase, and Karolina. With a K. They form the rest of our motley crew." Finally, Dagger walked in. "You kids like it here?" They had finally stopped staring and had started to make small talk with Molly, Chase, and Karolina.

"Given the circumstances, this is paradise." Julie said. They were re-shuffling the cards, although they weren't letting Katie play.

"Glad to hear it. We'll be heading back to the Hostel, should only take us a couple of days. Ty's driving."

"The Hostel?" Jack asked.

"It's our safehouse in L.A. Old ruined hotel in Bronson Canyon."

I walked over to Dagger. "Can I have a word? In private?"

She nodded. We walked away from the campsite, out of earshot, and sat down.

"So," I said. "Now that we've all been introduced-wait… where's Heidi?"

"She must have gotten away in all the chaos. No worries. She's good at running away, you know that."

"Okay, then. So, who are these kids?"

"You remember the Pride?"

"The crime gods of Los Angeles? Didn't they have to call in a couple Avengers to take care of them? Wait, you're not telling me…"

"Yup. We were in the neighborhood, and we heard about these kids on the run, with some strange abilities."

"Such as…?

"Gertrude has some sort of mental link with that raptor of hers, Old Lace. She can control it. Karolina's… she's an alien."

"What kind?"

"I think it's called a Majestican, something like that?"

"Never heard of that one before."

"There's a lot out there we don't know about. Nico's a witch; she can do some freaky stuff with that staff of hers."

"Magic?"

"Magic. Chase has a pair of flamethrower gauntlets and X-ray goggles. And Molly… she's one of the strongest mutants ever. Literally. When we first met, she tore Cloak's cloak straight off!"

That was a shocker. It would take nothing less than a god to tear Cloak's cloak off.

"Wait… weren't there twelve members of the Pride? And aren't there only five kids here?"

"Yeah. Alex. During that fight in Wister… he got in the way of Karolina's dad."

"Oh. Sorry to hear that."

"They've pretty much gotten over it. It's been a few months."

"So. We go to your place in L.A., and then what?"

"We just survive. S.H.I.E.L.D. has us all on one list or another; we're still runaways."

"So are we. But we're taking the fight to S.H.I.E.L.D. You hear about some agents getting injured in New York?"

"Nope. Maybe Cloak heard about it, but I can't exactly get out right now. He's driving. Anyway, settle in. It's a long way to L.A."

"You're sure the raptor won't kill me on the way?"

Dagger laughed. "I'm sure."

"So, about taking the fight to them…"

"No. That is an awful idea."

"We kind of kicked their asses in New York. Imagine what we could do."

"We'd all get killed. Or worse."

"Or we'd win. We'd do so much damage, they'd collapse from the inside!"

"And then what? Even if they didn't dump us in an unmarked grave, where would we go? Where would we run?"

"We wouldn't have to run anymore."

"You haven't thought this through, have you? You just want revenge. You and the Powers, that's all you care about."

"And what do you care about?"

She thought this over for a while. I walked back to camp and played cards. They were nice kids. Finally, Dagger walked back over to us.

"I went out, chatted with Ty. Deep Net's saying that a S.H.I.E.L.D. team is conducting an investigation in Los Angeles. Not related to us. Assange is right, for better or for worse. They deserve to get hit. And that's exactly what we're going to do."


	4. Karnak

Chapter Four: Karnak

_It is the oldest ironies that are still the most satisfying: man, when preparing for bloody war, will orate loudly and most eloquently in the name of peace._

_ -_From_ Watchmen_

It had been a week since the Powers had come knocking at my door, and two days since we had arrived at the Hostel. It was actually a pretty nice place, considering that it was a ruined hotel in a cave in Bronson Canyon. Then again, my last home had been a shack in an NYC shanty town, so it was at least three steps up. We each had our own rooms, and life was close to idyllic. The only thing keeping me from kicking back and relaxing was the fact that I had a mission, along with the Powers. S.H.I.E.L.D. was in town, so we had decided to strike as soon as possible.

I was scrolling through a Rising Tide forum just after dinner when I stumbled across something that would change everything.

**Searching_For: shield is in la. they're looking for someone.**

** TacoM: We've known that they were there for three days.**

** Searching_For: yeah but for what.**

** TacoM: We don't know. Every time someone gets a lead on something, the bastards cover it up.**

** Searching_For: jayclub leaked some memos yesterday.**

** TacoM: No big deal.**

** Searching_For: and one of the messages read "karnak is loose". **

** TacoM: And you think that they're looking for whatever Karnak is?**

** Searching_For: i know it**

The discussion cut off after that. But if "Karnak" was loose in Los Angeles, it could lead us straight to S.H.I.E.L.D. I called a group meeting in the living room, an Escher-like mishmash of rubble and classy furniture. I explained the conversation, and what it might mean.

"If S.H.I.E.L.D. is hunting for someone or something that got away from them, that means the city will be full of agents. We'll be like kids in a candy store."

Naturally, Dagger raised some objections.

"And they could get us all, easy. Ten kids and a _Velociraptor_-"

"Old Lace is a _Deinonychus_," Gertrude interrupted.

"Whatever. We can't exactly be subtle _and _effective."

"So what do you suggest? Miss out on an opportunity of a lifetime?"

"Wait and see what happens. If something comes up that we can take advantage of, we do it. Otherwise, we stay here. Who knows, maybe they'll turn u-"

Suddenly, we heard the squeals of tires and lots of shouting outside, then a few gunshots. Everyone got up at once, and I raised my hand for silence. I walked towards the makeshift screen door at the cave entrance, and looked outside. On the road that lead through the canyon, not fifty yards away, was a black S.H.I.E.L.D. van, with the silver emblem on the sides. Surrounding it were at least five agents, all of whom were packing heat.

"It's gone. Son of a bitch…" I heard one guy say.

I calmly walked back to the group.

"Five armed agents and a van. Alex, Karolina, can you restrain them?"

They nodded.

"Good. K, go out there full rainbow. Distract them, bag them. We'll ask them about Karnak, maybe Chase could wave his fists around a bit. Then, we tie them up and throw them in the bushes. We have rope around, right?"

Cloak nodded.

"I still think this is a bad idea," Dagger said.

"Ten kids and a _Deinonychus_. What could go wrong?"

Karolina walked towards the door, pulled off a metal bracelet with a red caduceus on it, and instantly exploded into light. She was a mostly humanoid being made of rainbows. We all looked on with amazement, Julie in particular. She threw the door open, and slowly walked out. I heard more shouting outside. They saw her. Alex followed her, and suddenly those shouts turned into muffled cries. I stepped outside.

Karolina was calmly standing beside the van, Alex right beside her. Two of the agents were wrapped in near-blinding multicolored ropes of light. The other three were levitating, a faintly transparent bubble surrounding them. I walked up to one of the agents Karolina had bound. He was maybe thirty-five, with curly brown hair and a hawkish nose.

"What's your name?" I asked. He glared at me.

"I said-" I put my face right up to his. "What's your name?"

"Why the hell would I ever tell you anything?"

"Molly?" I shouted. She came running. "Hit his van, please." She looked at me quizzically.

"Why?"

"Please just hit it." She nodded, and walked up to the van. Her eyes suddenly glowed bright pink, and she grinned the tiniest bit. She lightly punched the van. To anyone else, that might have made the knuckles sting for a few seconds. Molly didn't even feel it. The van flew back several feet, and there was a massive dent in the side. The agent looked at the van, looked back at me, and nodded wildly.

"M-M-Mordecai. My name is Mordecai."

"Thanks, Molly. And thank you for the name, Mordecai. Now, I'm going to need you to answer some questions. But first…"

I made the other four agents' earpieces begin to emit an extremely high-pitched sound. They grunted in pain, and then fell unconscious.

"Alex, K, free them, please. Tell Julie and Cloak to grab the rope. They'll come to in a few hours and have no clue what they're doing behind the Hollywood sign."

The two of them nodded and dropped the agents. They walked back inside.

"Now, Mordecai, tell me, what's Karnak?"

"I can't… I can't tell you."

"You just saw a twelve-year-old girl turn an armored van into a Progressive commercial. What's Karnak?"

"Just… can we talk somewhere else?"

"Very well." I punched him straight in the nose. When he came to, he was lying on a bed in one of the Hostel's empty rooms. I was sitting in the corner, and Jack was watching through one of the secret passages that were all over the ruin.

"This better? I had Nico search you, so don't bother grabbing at any hidden weapons."

He groaned and grabbed at his nose, but nodded.

"So. What's Karnak?"

"And if I don't tell you?"

"Look, you've been trained not to talk under pressure. But I want to help, and I can't do that if I don't know what Karnak is. Also, do I have to mention the whole twelve-year-old girl who could bust a hole through your gut if she so pleased?"

His eyes widened.

"Okay, okay, fine, fine. I didn't tell you this, okay?"

"Fine by me. So tell me: what's Karnak, and why does S.H.I.E.L.D. want it so badly?"

"Karnak is a codename for anything originating from Project Bubastis."

"Which is…?"

"It was… is… a S.H.I.E.L.D. base in Antarctica."

"The purpose of which is…?"

"Biological experiments."

"On people?"

There was a long moment of silence.

"Yes. On people. I was never involved; I didn't even know about it until the briefing yesterday. Somehow, one of the test subjects got out. Don't ask me how."

"Details, Mordy, I need _details_."

"He's… he's sort of an energy vampire. He was supposed to be a part of this unit S.H.I.E.L.D. was working on, hunting down mutants. He also has this hypnotic stare. Look into his eyes for long enough, and… I've heard you see some terrible things."

"And he's loose in Los Angeles?"

"As far as we know. He could be miles away at this point."

"Is there anything else that I need to know?"

"No. Now answer my questions. Who was that crazy rainbow bi-"

I made his earpiece whine and he was out like a light.

"Karolina isn't a bitch."

I walked out of the room and into the main area, where everyone else was restlessly reading or chatting.

"Cloak, Jules, he's knocked out in room 59. Same as the others."

They nodded and started walking down the hall towards the room. I walked out the door.

"Need some fresh air," I said before heading out.

The sun was setting, and the air was crisp and cool. Standing in the shadow of some trees was a tall, skinny man, with long black hair. I walked up to him. He had piercing yellow eyes. "They're gone?" he asked. I looked away.

"They're gone. There's a note in that agent's pocket that will point them towards Tijuana. In the meantime, you can get away."

"Thank you. I can't thank you enough, kid."

"You can. You can fly. What's the airspace like?"

"You know those Quinjet things? VTOL fighter jets?"

"There's always a couple over NYC."

"They've got a dozen in the air right now, easy. And that giant plane, the Bus. Saw it being prepped for takeoff at LAX."

"Thanks, Karl. Now go out and live your life."

He smiled and saluted. Then, he turned his back on me. His skin turned green and scaly, he grew three feet, and his clothes flew apart. Massive wings grew out of his back, and a crest grew out the back of his head. He walked out into the open road. Then, I heard what sounded like a small explosion. Karl fell dead to the ground. My eyes bugged out, and I looked up.

On the ridge was a girl. She looked taller than me, but I couldn't make out too much from the distance. She was dressed in red and purple, and was carrying an admittedly badass sniper rifle. But the strangest thing about her was that she wasn't standing on the ground. She was hovering on a reddish-green cloud. I ran back inside.

"We've got company!" I shouted. Everyone got up.

"S.H.I.E.L.D.?" Half the group asked at once.

"Looks that way! Some sort of sniper, looks like a mutant. She was hovering on a cloud."

Then, we heard a loud screeching, like a plane was landing. I looked out the door. It was a Quinjet: a big, sleek, silver fighter jet. Outside were at least seven S.H.I.E.L.D. agents in full black body armor, with riot helmets and assault rifles.

"Yeah! S.H.I.E.L.D.!"

Everyone was standing behind me. I threw open the door.

"We're coming out! Don't shoot!"

We slowly walked out. The agents fixed their guns on us. "Good to see you're cooperating," the one who had taken point said. "Now get on your knees, and shut up."

And that's when her earpiece exploded. She fell to the ground, screeching. Meanwhile, another two had gone up into the air, and one was in the signature Karolina Dean Near-Death Grip. Before the last three knew what was happening, one had a glowing white shard of something stuck in his shoulder, and the other two guns had flown out of their user's hands. They threw up their hands in surrender. I walked up to one, pulled her down to my level, and stuck my face right up to hers.

"Where's the Bus?"


	5. CXD 23

Chapter Five: CXD 23

_We the members of the Rising Tide affirm the basic rights to FREEDOM OF KNOWLEDGE, to PRIVACY, and DUE PROCESS UNDER LAW, the rights that S.H.I.E.L.D. has sought to deny us…_

-From the public charter of Rising Tide

We were flying. The Quinjet was crowded with all of us, half toting nicked assault rifles, but we wouldn't be on it much longer if things went according to plan. We were in the skies over Los Angeles, the sun dipping below the horizon. The other Quinjets in the sky had all but cleared out now that Karl "Karnak" was dead, so it was clear flying. Mostly.

I was controlling the autopilot as we approached the giant black Boeing that was the Bus. The radio beeped several times. Someone was attempting to contact us, so I humored them, switching on the two-way.

"…repeat, Brooklyn to Ozymandias, what is your status?"

I pulled the CB receiver to my mouth.

"Brooklyn, this is Ozymandias. There has been a change of flight crew; we should be rendezvousing with the Bus in a matter of minutes."

"Whiskey tango foxtrot, Ozymandias, that is not your flight plan."

"Change of plans, Brooklyn."

"Ozymandias, reverse course _immediately _or we will engage."

"Do your worst-"

Another Quinjet pulled up alongside us. The pilot turned his head and looked at me.

"I may regret this."

I swung us down and below the Quinjet, and everyone jumped in their seats.

"This is your pilot speaking," I said, half grinning and half terrified. "SEATBELTS! Julie, Karolina, Dagger, I want you out there, distract him until we can get to the Bus."

I opened the door, and the wind nearly ripped the three out anyway. Over the air rushing into the cabin, Dagger shouted, "Who made you leader?"

"Is now the time to discuss this?"

She shook her head, rolled her eyes, and jumped out, followed by Karolina and Julie. A moment later, they were flying circles around the other Quinjet. With him alternating between avoiding them and trying to ram them, we continued flying up to the Bus. Finally, "Brooklyn" flew off to the side, headed south. Instead, we were being hailed by someone else. I picked up the receiver. "Hello?"

"Get the hell away from our plane." May.

"Melinda! Nice to hear from you again! Oh, sorry, poor choice of words."

"I lost hearing in one of my ears, you son of a bitch."

"Didn't knock emotion into you, did it?"

"We will bring you down."

"I'm sure."

I clicked the radio off. We were almost directly behind it. According to the radar, the only Quinjet in the skies, Brooklyn, was too far off to make much difference. I was within range to use my abilities on it. _Knock, knock _I thought. The cargo bay at the back of the plane began to open slowly. Inside were a couple of cars, and some sort of huge glass box I couldn't quite make out. Now time for the hard part. I slowly, slowly pulled the Quinjet along the door/ramp now jutting out like the side of a cliff. We were simultaneously flying sideways to keep up with the plane and trying to balance. Finally, I opened the Quinjet's side door.

"Everybody out!"

We all jumped out. I programmed the Quinjet to crash into the hills, away from any civilians, and it flew off. I took a look around, closing the bay door. There were two vehicles: a black SUV with the S.H.I.E.L.D. logo on it, and a gorgeous red '62 Corvette. I brushed my palm against it, smiling.

"Search the plane. Anyone shoots, shoot back. I'm assuming you guys can shoot, right?"

Everyone shook their heads. Even Old Lace ducked her head. I sighed.

"Or just use your powers. I'll head up to the cockpit and assume control of the plane. The autopilot is set to..." I mentally checked where we would be heading. "We're headed towards a military base in Connecticut unless I say otherwise. Where to?"

Everyone talked at once. I got responses ranging from Genosha to "anywhere but here". Then, Chase saw something.

"There's someone in the lab!"

The glass cube was in fact a partitioned off part of the bay, with a ton of forensics instruments and half-compiled doodads that could do God knows what. In the back were two people. We walked up to the door and looked inside. They were shrunk behind a desk, but I could make out two people in their mid-twenties. There was a somewhat pretty woman with auburn hair and a slightly older guy with curly light brown hair. They looked almost pleased with themselves.

"The door won't open for you! Locked from the inside!" the woman said. British accent. I just smiled. It slid open. Both their eyes widened.

"Take them. Nico, search Curly, Chase, search… Moe… I didn't think that one through. You know what to do. In the meantime, search this place."

Twenty minutes later, we had cleared the place. The parachutes were gone; the rest of the people onboard must have used them. In the meantime, we found food and supplies (and a _lot _of liquor), and I was draining the computers for useful information. The two scientists we had captured, Leo Fitz and Jemma Simmons, were the only ones left onboard, but they were more than enough to negotiate with. We had enough fuel for at least a whole day's worth of flying; we were set.

While everyone else was camped out around the plane, I had been sitting in the cockpit. Even if I had no clue how to fly this thing, I could direct the autopilot. We were lazily circling Santa Catalina Island when Katie came rushing from the briefing room.

"Mr. Assange, there's a lady on the screen! The big one!"

Mr. Assange… I liked the sound of it. I followed her. The briefing room was full of holographic projection technology and screens, but it had one big screen in the back. Everyone had crowded around us. On it was a seriously pissed-off looking middle-aged woman. Her black hair had bright red highlights, and she was wearing thick black glasses. She was standing in front of what looked like metal plating, and I could faintly hear phones ringing off the hook in the background, and dozens of people talking at once.

"Is this your leader?" she said.

"Well-" Dagger was about to say, but I cut her off.

"For all intents and purposes. Who are you?"

"S.H.I.E.L.D. Agent Victoria Hand. Let's cut to the chase-give us back our plane."

"No."

"Trust me, this will go a _lot _better for you if you surrender now. None of you will die."

"You're probably right. We'll just go on trial in front of a military tribunal and be sentenced to life in prison with plenty of water boarding and experimentation to go along with it. That's what will happen to all of us."

I looked behind me. Everyone looked either scared or curiously horrified.

"We will blow you out of the sky."

"And your scientists, too?"

"We consider them expendable."

"A fact that I'm sure they'll be pleased to hear. And I really don't care about them any more than you do. But I think you'll care a lot about the data I snagged off of your computers."

That caught her attention.

"What sort of data?"

"Anything that has ever gone through any S.H.I.E.L.D. computer since the Battle of New York and has been saved. Interrogation transcripts, funding requisitions, black sites, retirement parties. I leak this, you could have Tony Stark and an adorable three-year-old on your PR team and it wouldn't matter. S.H.I.E.L.D. would go down, and all of you with it. So I recommend that you let us be for the time being."

Cloak looked at me. "You didn't tell us you had all this." I ignored him.

"This is… this is…" Hand blustered.

"This is going to look very fun on your oversight forms."

I turned the call off.

"What the hell was that?" Dagger asked me.

"That was me saving our asses. Without the data, we'd all be dead in an hour. Now, we're all but untouchable. She's aware of my abilities by now; she knows that if the radar detects so much as a goose coming at us, I'll leak the data."

"You could have at least told us about this!"

"Tandy's right," said Cloak.

"We all have our secrets. Look, everything's going fine! So let's just relax and settle in. We're here for at least another day or so."

So we did. I lounged about in the cockpit for a while, reading a V.C. Andrews paperback I had found in the lounge. Eventually, Old Lace slowly walked up behind me and nuzzled my shoulder. _I am flying a plane formerly used by my mortal enemies, reading Flowers in the Attic, and cuddling with a dinosaur_, I thought. _My life, ladies and gentlemen_.

Chase walked up to me. "You know, Katie and Jack were saying… if we're a team, we need a team name."

"They have any suggestions?"

"Jack said Brain Blasters."

I laughed out loud.

"Gertrude suggested the Sarissas."

"Sarissas?"

"That's what I asked. She said that sarissas were this kind of spear that were so powerful and bulky that they made carrying a shield inconvenient at best."

"And at worst?"

"Impossible."

"The Sarissas. I like it."

**THE HUB, LOCATION CLASSIFIED**

_The conference room was dominated by a silver table. At one end was a series of large screens. Victoria walked in just as the man in front of them finished talking. _

_ "Let me assure you, the data will not be leaked. We have the situation under control."_

_ "Prove that to us, or we'll blow them out of the sky, data or no data." It was a man's voice. The screens showing the silhouettes clicked off. The man at the head of the table turned around._

_ "Agent Hand. What's the latest news?"_

_ "People have caught on. Fox is blaming terrorists, which we've confirmed. Don't want the people to know that we got our asses kicked by a bunch of adolescent brats."_

_ The man rapped his knuckles on the table in irritation. _

_ "Do you want us to get Romanoff and Barton?" Victoria asked._

_ "No. They're too cold, too… S.H.I.E.L.D. We need negotiators who can relate to them. Activate Excelsior."_

_ Victoria hesitated. She had seen them train. They were brutal, merciless._

_ "Are you sure about that, sir? They certainly won't help their impressions of us."_

_ "Activate them nonetheless, get them on a conference call. They might be our one hope to get them down."_

_ "Yes, Director Fury."_


	6. Cloud 9

Chapter Six: Cloud 9

_At this hour__/__Lie at my mercy all mine enemies._

-From _The Tempest_

The distant lights of Los Angeles were behind us now. We were flying over deserts and mountains, between Death Valley and Las Vegas. It all seemed so small from on high, like you could walk from South L.A. to the Las Vegas Strip in a few hours if you put your back into it. I was getting a bit woozy from the height, and my body clock kept telling me it was time to go to sleep, but I stayed up. I might accidentally crash us, or S.H.I.E.L.D. might hit us with a missile if I didn't maintain the autopilot. So I drank instant coffee, listened to the _Mulan _soundtrack (for some reason, it was downloaded onto the plane's computers), and watched the world go by.

At around eleven, Karolina came up to the cockpit.

"Everyone but me and Old Lace are asleep. You should be, too."

"I can't. If I do, who knows what might happen?"

"You have to sleep eventually."

"Maybe I'll do a power nap type thing. Ten minutes asleep, then ten hours awake."

"That's crazy."

"We've seen crazier. Speaking of that, I never bothered to ask… what the hell is up with Old Lace? I mean, she's a freaking dinosaur. How did that happen?"

"Gertrude's parents were time travelers."

"So they tamed a dinosaur for her?"

"Bit more complicated than that. They had it genetically commissioned. That's why she obeys Gertrude's every command."

"Well." I leaned back in my chair. "That's not even the craziest thing that's ever happened to me."

Karolina chuckled. "But it's up there?"

"Right up there with the mutant stripper and the-"

"What's that?"

I looked out the window. There was something-or someone-flying alongside the plane.

**ONE HOUR EARLIER**

_S.H.I.E.L.D.'s Los Angeles office was a bland office space above a Qatari restaurant in South L.A. The owners probably had some clue of what was going on, but they never said anything. Agent Hand was busy briefing four teenagers. The youngest was fourteen, sitting in a corner, wearing her signature aviator gear and absentmindedly twirling her blonde hair. There was an African-American kid, sitting a good distance away. A Japanese girl was sitting on a beanbag chair, listening attentively. Finally, there was a tall eighteen-year-old girl with night-black hair in the doorway, wearing a specialized blend of Kevlar and leather. _

_ "The Bus was hijacked around seven in the evening. We aren't entirely certain as to how many are onboard it, but there are possibly more than a dozen, all of whom have some sort of mutant ability or other sort of advantage over your average agent. Abigail-"_

_ The girl in the aviator gear looked up._

_ "You're to scout the Bus, try to find a way in. David-"_

_ The boy looked at Hand._

_ "Maintain radio and visual contact. Try to talk them down."_

_ David nodded._

_ The girl in the doorway spoke up. "I could handle them. Get me a way up and they'd all be dead in minutes."_

_ "I know that," said Hand. "But we don't want them dead unless necessary. They'd leak everything on the computers. Including everything about you four."_

_ The doorway girl looked at her feet._

_ "The rest of you, stay here and wait until they can get down."_

_ "Patience isn't our thing, Victoria," the doorway girl said._

_ "Just try. When they get down, you can do whatever you want to get what we need out of them."_

_ The doorway girl smiled. She raised her hand. Two eight-inch-long claws shot out of the back of it. _

The shape looked humanoid, only it was perched on a small cloud of neon red and green mist. That's when I realized-it was the same person who killed Karl. According to my senses, she had some sort of earpiece. I tried to hail her.

"Bus to… neon cloud lady. Please respond."

I got an answer.

"This is Cloud 9. What is it?"

"Cute name. What are you doing outside our plane?"

"I'm a representative of S.H.I.E.L.D."

"Are you here to shoot us down?"

"I'm here to talk. I'm unarmed."

I looked at Karolina.

"Want me to wake everyone up?"

"Yeah, and clear everyone out of the main cargo bay."

She sarcastically saluted and went off to do those things. Ten minutes later, the cargo bay was open. We were all standing behind one of the cars so that we wouldn't be thrown off the plane. In flew the girl. I immediately closed the doors and we pointed our assault rifles at her. She threw her hands up.

"Alex, take her to a closet and search her."

They walked off. Five minutes later, the two came back. Karolina "cuffed" her by binding her wrists with light, and we all sat down or just stood in the briefing room.

"I want to be civil here," the girl said.

"As do I," I responded. "Let's start with names. I am Assange."

Everyone else introduced themselves in turn.

"Nice to meet you. I'm Abigail, but just call me Cloud 9."

"I caught that. Why are you here?"

"Better question," said Cloak. "Why should we trust you?"

"One," 9 responded. "I'm here to scout your defenses and try to talk you down. And two, if you have even a single brain cell, you probably shouldn't. But let me ask you one thing before you in all likelihood kill me: why did you bring kindergarteners into this?"

"I'm in _second grade_!" Katie indignantly cried out.

"And she can also probably kill you," I added. "What can you do, exactly? What's with the cloud?"

"It's technically a chemical mist with arbitrary density. And to answer that question, I can manipulate it. I can fly on it. I can choke the life out of someone with it."

"Is there anyone else with you?"

"Not physically, no. But I have an earpiece that is transmitting everything that you and I are saying to HQ, where my teammates are."

"How many of them are there?"

"Three, not counting myself. There's me, David, Hisako, and… well, her official name is X-Gene Generation 23, but we just call her X-23."

"Wild guess-she's a genetically bred killer."

"Bingo. David, Hisako and I are mutants. David can absorb the intellects of people around him, and Hisako can generate some sort of cool energy armor around herself. X-23… she's a tough nut to crack. Accelerated healing, above-average intellect, perfect physical condition, eight-inch claws…"

"What do they plan on doing?"

"David and Hisako are planning on negotiating, I'm supposed to be the eyes in the sky, and X-23's job is to… handle you when you get down. If you get down, that is."

Chase winced and crossed his legs.

"So do we kill her?" asked Cloak.

"No," I said. "Three hostages are better than two. Put her in the SUV with Fitzsimmons." That was our nickname for the hostages, who we were keeping cuffed and under watch inside the SUV. Molly and Jack led her away.

"Now," I said. "We need to discuss what to do with these three. They're a drain on our resources, and there's always the chance of them getting out. We can't kill them, though."

"Kill them?" Katie said.

"We can't kill them! We aren't killers!" Dagger added.

"We can't afford to lose them as bargaining chips," Julie finished.

"Is that what you're so concerned about?" Dagger retorted. "That we might not have enough bait to last the trip? No 'killing is bad', no 'that would make us like them'?"

"Tandy," I said. "I know where you're coming from. I hate S.H.I.E.L.D. for what they do. They kill, and killing _is _bad. But that doesn't mean that if it comes to it, we won't kill."

"Whatever happened to the Assange who didn't want to do these things? You're out for some deluded fantasy of crashing the Helicarrier and hanging Coulson's head on your wall!"

"It's not deluded. Look what we've accomplished, and tell me that we can't do those things. Not the decapitating Coulson thing."

"You've lost your mind."

I slammed my hand down on the briefing room's table-mounted projector. Instinctively, every screen in the room flashed red.

"I've lost everything," I nearly screamed. "My home, my family, my former life. When the Powers found me, I was living in a tiny shack, hoping for some sign of anything I had ever had. Now we can actually accomplish something."

"It's not worth accomplishing."

"THEN GET OUT!" The screens flashed a thousand different images, finally settling on a picture from the black-and-white adaptation of _Lord of the Flies_. Cloak and Dagger walked out of the room. Everyone else but Gertrude and Chase left. Finally, they left, too. I stayed in the room for a long time, staring at the picture of a schoolboy on the beach. _You had it easy_, I thought. _The only people who wanted you dead were the ones you could see_.

I was lying in the cockpit. I think we were over Montana when I heard the shots. Two of them. I was in the cargo bay in twenty seconds flat, just in time to see the bodies sprawled on the floor next to the SUV. And to see Julie standing above them, arms shaking, gun clutched in her hands.

_ From the author: I thought I should extend my gratitude towards all of you who have started following this story and made it your favorites. So, thank you a lot for putting up with this cathartic madness! And thank you to Aileen Autarkeia for your positive feedback. It really means a lot. And, in the hopes of you forgiving me for killing off two of the most beloved characters on the show, I can confirm (barring any unforeseen circumstances) that I'll be doing at least one sequel to this story. I'm (tentatively) calling it The Sarissas: Greatest Generation. As well as that, there will be a spinoff bridging the two stories together called Brave New World. Again, thank you for your support, and here's hoping you'll keep up with this adventure as it unfolds! _

_ -EKHornbeck_


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